Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1288

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.

He continued to serve in the trenches about Richmond until the city was evacuated, when he marched out with his comrades in the effort to unite with the other Confederate forces. He was engaged in the battle of Sailor's Creek, and at Appomattox when the escape of the army seemed impossible, he slipped through the Federal lines, intending to reach the Trans-Mississippi department, and made his way as far as Louisiana. But it becoming apparent that the war was over, he obtained a parole at Alexandria in that State, and returned to Lynchburg, Va., and thence went to Richmond to resume the duties of civil life. He entered upon business life as a clerk in a store, and in 1867 he removed to Baltimore, his father accompanying him, and entered the employment of the Pennsylvania railroad company. After an engagement for several years in this connection, he became manager of the Southern branch of the Laflin-Rand powder company, stationed at Baltimore, in which capacity he is now acting.

Captain George G. Thompson, of Culpeper, was born in Louisa county, March 15, 1824. He was educated at William and Mary college, and pursued a course of study in law, a profession to which he gave his attention for a year or two at Richmond. Then making his home in Culpeper county, he was engaged in farming at the time of the crisis in Virginia affairs in the spring of 1861. He enlisted with a volunteer company, and going to Harper's Ferry, was assigned to the Thirteenth Virginia infantry, his command becoming Company E. Being over thirty-seven years of age he was soon promoted captain, and assistant quartermaster, and assigned to the brigade of Gen. T. J. Jackson, with which he served until after the first battle of Manassas. He was then transferred to the valley of Virginia, under the orders of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. In the summer of 1862 he was ordered to report to Colonel Carey, chief quartermaster on the staff of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and in this capacity he continued on duty throughout the remainder of the war, his main duty being the charge of the field depots. He rendered efficient and faithful service to the heroic army which contended for the cause of Southern independence upon Virginia soil. Returning to Culpeper after the surrender, he held the office of county sheriff two years, and since retiring from that office has served for thirty years as local agent of the Orange & Alexandria railroad, now part of the Southern system. In 1850 he was married to Miss Barbour, of Culpeper, sister of Senator Barbour. They have living four daughters and three sons. Of the latter one is assistant superintendent of the Southern railroad, in charge of several divisions; another is a lawyer at Washington, D. C., and the third is soliciting agent of the Southern railroad at Lynchburg. The second daughter is the wife of Rev. J. G. Minnigerode, rector of Calvary church, Louisville, Ky.

Captain John H. Thompson, of Portsmouth, distinguished as an artillery officer among the gallant soldiers of southeastern Virginia, is a native of the city where he now resides, born in 1823. At the passage of the ordinance of secession by the Virginia convention he was employed in the Gosport navy yard, where his last duty was in preparing the Merrimac to be taken North. He was at the same time first lieutenant of the Portsmouth light artillery, an organization dating back to a period previous to the war of 1812, and honored by the memories of the valiant